Tarsands Infrastructure: South/East [US] is a category that represents the many connecting and supplying pipelines and associated projects that are needed to transport fuels for the production of tar sands bitumen and to move tar sand heavy bitumen to the Lower 48 of the US for refining. This involves some massive new pipeline projects to Illinois, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Louisiana, California, Pennsylvania, Texas and elsewhere including existing refineries in Ontario and Quebec.
Though the category is labelled "US", the proposed new projects also traverse untouched Canadian territory across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The names of some of the larger ones include The Alberta Clipper Project, The Spearhead Pipeline (expansion) and the Keystone Pipeline, along with other pipelines controlled by TransCanada and Enbridge, as well as Imperial Oil. Despite the massive size and scale of pipeline networks already existing through the continental United States, these pipelines and associated construction would be needed to achieve US and Canadian government goals of reaching 5 million barrels a day of tar sand oil being shipped out of the tar sands "ground zero" of Alberta.
Possible tar sands pipeline to Portland worries environmental groups
By Matthew Arco
Feb 08, 2012
Portland Daily Sun (Maine)
Environmental groups fearing that talks to pump "incredibly destructive" crude oil from Canada to Greater Portland are once again resurfacing, are opposing the project even before one is officially put in writing.
Nardone: Keystone pipeline: A bad idea
By Julie Nardone/Local columnist
MetroWest Daily News
Posted Jan 29, 2012
President Obama may not have killed the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline project for all the following reasons, but he should have.
America’s #1 export in 2011 was refined fuel.
Shocked? Don’t be. Despite the staggering price of gas at the pump, the US ships gas, diesel and jet fuel off to developing countries like China.
Tar sands battle continues in California courts
InsideClimateNews | Jan 25, 2012
By Maria Gallucci
A high-stakes legal battle is underway in California over whether the state's clean air agency can enforce a first-ever rule to slash carbon emissions in transportation fuels. The fight is being closely watched because the rule could choke global market demand for Alberta's carbon-intensive oil sands at a very precarious time for the industry.
With the Keystone Pipeline Stalled, Canada Turns to China
Rachel Glickhouse
www.as-coa.org
January 19, 2012
Canada plans to expand oil shipments from Alberta to British Columbia, in order to increase trade with Asia.(AP Photo)
Saudi Arabia. Nigeria. Venezuela. Canada?
Is our neighbor to the north becoming a jingoistic petro-state?
By Will Oremus|Posted Friday, Jan. 20, 2012
Slate.com
January 19, 2012
When Will Environmentalists Ever Wake Up?
The Great Pipeline Scam
by MICHAEL LEONARDI
Counterpunch
Not a statement, but a thought on the denial of the Keystone XL permit. This was not Obama "getting it right"-- this was Obama afraid of people power.
TransCanada hopes to stick to 2014 timeline for Keystone pipeline
By Rebecca Penty, Calgary Herald; With Files From James Wood And Dina O'meara, Calgary Herald January 19, 2012
Keystone XL backer TransCanada Corp. is maintaining an ambitious plan to have its proposed Alberta-to-Texas oil pipeline operating by late 2014, though the Obama administration that rejected the line Wednesday says any subsequent application would spark a fresh review.
Obama denies permit for Keystone pipeline
Alberta Tories to blame for our friendless status
By Don Braid, Calgary Herald January 19, 2012
As the Keystone XL pipeline collides yet again with U.S. politics, nobody cries for Alberta. Our licence plate motto could be: Alberta, The Friendless Province.
And we've earned our lonely state; or at least, successive PC governments have won it for us.
This latest fiasco results from decades of bad provincial policy, lax oversight, and overweening, belligerent pride in money and resources bestowed by nature, not by virtue.
Latin oil supplies for U.S. start to dry up
Canadian pipeline can fill gap
By Patrice Hill
The Washington Times
Monday, January 2, 2012
The political and environmental debates swirling around the proposed $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to Texas miss a crucial point, energy analysts say: The Canadian oil is needed to replace fast-dwindling production from two other major suppliers of oil — Mexico and Venezuela.
